An Earth Shattering Realization!!!

Early this morning, while I was having coffee and waiting for a service man to drop by for a storm door repair, I posted the following question over at the Old School Wargaming Yahoo group:

In the order of battle for the Imperial Army at the Battle of Sittangbad, a "Coy Waldeck Regiment" is listed. Several pages later, in the account of the battle, reference is made to an independent company of that regiment defending the redoubt constructed just outside of the town.

My question is to you is: Is "Coy Waldeck" the name of said unit, or is it an abbreviated form of this: 1 company, Waldeck Regiment? I'm trying to figure out whether I need to paint an entire battalion of four companies (80 figures), or just a single company (approx. 20 figures).

Maybe I've missed something elsewhere in the book that provides the key. Would those of you who might know the answer please assist in unraveling this mystery?

Within the hour, several members leapt to my assistance and provided the answer: a single company of the infantry unit under discussion. Thanks again to everyone who responded! And isn’t it wonderful to be part of such a group where the members are ready to assist like that?

Anyway, in the Partizan 2006 Sittangbad refight photograph above, the unit analogous to Young and Lawford’s independent company of the Waldeck Regiment was Phil Olley’s own red-coated Sachsen Grenadiers, made up of the lovely old Spencer Smith miniatures. Look closely at the photos above, and you’ll see them advancing smartly with standard waving in the breeze.

Best of all, I took out my calculator, consulted my Painting Progress Chart, made a few readjustments, and came to a stunning conclusion. Are you ready for this? In fact, I am just over the halfway point with my painting for the Grand Duchy of Stollen project. Figuring in the single company of 20 figures, instead of a full 80-strong regiment, and removing another infantry unit and a cavalry unit from my order of battle (which I had inadvertently added to Young and Lawford’s list of units for the Imperial forces), reduces the number of figures I must paint by a whopping 170 figures!

To put this in better perspective, I’ve pasted in a few details from my updated progress chart here:

* Total Figures in Project: Approximately 750

* Figures Painted to Date: Approximately 382

* Painting Halfway Point: 375

* The 8^th (Pillau-Zerbst) Regiment (80) and 5^th (Provincial) Chasseurs zu Pferd (30), which I included originally in my order of battle, were not part of Young and Lawford’s for Sittangbad. So, I’ll add these units later at my leisure once I’ve completed the initial 750-figure project, raising the total to 860.

This discovery also means that I am much closer to completion of the Electorate of Zichenau’s army and places me somewhat ahead of schedule as far as painting is concerned. Who knows? I might just be able to complete everything well before the targeted completion date of December 2010.

Last of all, I have a 20-strong company of RSM French musketeers in the marching position, courtesy of Jim Perky, which I’ll paint up as an independent company of the 'Wolmar-Bock Regiment' (a.k.a. the Waldeck Regiment in Young and Lawford), which hails from neighboring Tauroggen-Fiebus, currently an ally of the Electorate of Zichenau.

I envision the company in light bluecoats and breeches with yellow cuffs, light blue turnbacks, white/silver lace, and black gaiters. No collars this time. Since it’s such a small number of figures, I might try to do this over the weekend as an exercise in speed painting in between coats of paint on the new tabletop. We’ll see how everything goes. Stay tuned!

It's Early Days Yet. . .

M aking some early progress with Batch A of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment over the last several days/evenings. Nothing terribly exciting just yet, but the basic black, brown, and flesh areas are done as are the green bases, and gray undercoat. The latter two areas needed some careful retouching early in the week. Next up, the neck stocks. I might just do these in red for the enlisted men although some of my source material suggest they were black, but I always look for an excuse to shake things up a bit. Any errant splotches of red (or black) can be covered with another application of light gray before I move onto the next step. "Giddy up!" as one Cosmo Kramer might have said. -- Stokes

A Little More Brushwork. . .

A little more brushwork on the first batch of (my version of) the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment yesterday (Saturday). Taking a different tack this time and addressing many of the details first before the white coats and other larger areas of uniform. The eagle-eyed among you will notice that I've painted the (dark) red stocks of the enlisted men. Always a difficult and frustrating item to paint, it made sense to paint from the inside out as it were and get that particular detail out of the way first rather than try to paint it in later after much other painting has been accomplished. Trying to reduce the need for later retouching of other items on the figures you understand. Hopefully, I will be able to get back to these later today after a second trip back to the Apple Store for help with a couple of new iPad issues and, following the return home, some revision of Google Slides for tomorrow's meetings with my students. -- Stokes P.S. And according t...

And We're Off!!!

Arrrgh! Gotta go back into camera settings on my iPhone to bring all of the frame into focus. Blast! Painting is underway on the 60 or so Minden Austrians, which are slated to become my version of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment of AWI renown. More or less indistinguishable from Austrians of the era really, right down to the red facings and turnbacks, but the eventual flags (already in my files) will set them apart. I went ahead and based-coated all of them over a couple of days lthe last week of August, using a mix of light gray and white acrylic gesso, before next applying my usual basic alkyd oil flesh tone to the faces and hands. In a day or two, I'll hit that with Army Painter Flesh Wash to tone things down a bit and bring some definition to the faces and hands. As usual, the plan is to focus on about 20 figures at a time, splitting the regiment roughly into thirds along with the color party and regimental staff. Depending on ...

Bluebear Jeff said…

Ah, Stokes, I'd already read the OSW exchange (which agrees with my own interpretation by the way).

What a great boost this should give you. And yes, painting that company over the weekend sounds like a great idea.

At least you're not trying to match Murdock's self-challenge. He's determined to paint 140 25mm Napoleonics this week.

-- Jeff

1:42 PM

DestoFante said…

What???

To be on time, or even ahead on a painting job? IMPOSSIBLE!
Stokes, sorry to bring you back to reality: clearly, your project is under-sized. You need to add units, pronto! Have you thought the issue through... are you really sure that you don't need an additional grenadier unit? Some more cuirassiers? No wargaming project deserves this name if its expected conclusion is shorter than a decade!

:-)

Adolfo

4:23 PM

Steve-the-Wargamer said…

..we also need to see some games with the completed figures - there's nothing like using figures in a project to make you enthused to paint more of them - and with a new table on the way what better way to christen it?! ;o)

6:43 AM

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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